Andrew Soltis
Number of games in database: 162
Years covered: 1967 to 2002
Last FIDE rating: 2407
Highest rating achieved in database: 2445Overall record: +43 -52 =64 (47.2%)*
* Overall winning percentage = (wins+draws/2) / total games
Based on games in the database; may be incomplete.
3 exhibition games, odds games, etc. are excluded from this statistic.

Andrew Eden Soltis was born on the 28th of May 1947 in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, USA.
Awarded the IM title in 1974 he became a GM in 1980. He finished 1st at Reggio Emilia 1971-72 and 1st= at New York 1977.
He is also known as a writer and author on the game.

Shams: When I was a complete fish I sent Soltis a question about the famous Reti where white's king on h8 draws against black's runaway h-pawn. He wrote back a very kind handwritten letter. Fan for life.

pazzed paun: anybody read that Soltis article about the 8 year rule-- where a player continues to improve in rating until about 8 years after learning the game then hit a plateau--
it is not that they cannot get better it is that they usually don't
comments?

pazzed paun: i had a chance to skim what it takes to be a chess master
sort of a book 2 to what to study in chess---be curious to find out if any former class A players use it to get a big jump in playing strength

jerseybob: Wyatt Gwyon: Andy Soltis has worked for the N.Y. Post for over 40 years, his wife Marcy nearly that long, and chess writing has been only a small part of his excellent output. But sadly, I read in Phil Mushnick's column of Sunday 3/9/14 that the two are are hanging it up after a total of 84 years and nine months at the Post. I pray he'll at least continue the chess column.

capafischer1: I find some of his books helpful. What I can't stand is when he only gives game fragments rather than showing the whole game. I like to see how they got to that position even if it has no notes.

tranquilsimplicity: <Domdaniel> You possess one of the most interesting profiles; jocular, intelligent, enlightening and eccentric. Just my style though I've recently turned very quiet. And therefore mine falls under the "Peregrine Ng" category. He..he..he..#

HeMateMe: Phil Mushnick is an untalented idiot. His beat for many years at the Post was specifically to report on sports as it is covered on television. For example, it the commentating is horrible, or if certain cities have bad camera set ups, or the sound quality is bad at certain arenas he would write a column on these topics---completely boring drivel. I rarely read his column.

There was a time when the Post and the Daily News were each 25 cents, so you bought one or both of them every day, just to get the street news--find out who got bludgeoned to death, rumors or facts on politician graft, police brutality, public nudity, stuff like that. Give it a five minute skim, then throw it in the garbage. It covered things that the Times didn't, so it was worth a quick look. Since the cost of the paper went up to $1 daily, I stopped buying the Post. I'm surprised Mushnick still has a job there.

Granny O Doul: I like Mushnick's column, though it does get repetitive. He used to sometimes get on announcers for insulting the intelligence of the viewers, and he'd give a quote from the announcer and then explain just why the statement was insulting to viewers' intelligence. BUT he doesn't do that anymore.

At any rate, he is a whole lot better than his would-be imitator Bob Raissman in the Daily News, who once praised the "great" (sic) Warner Wolf (former ABC then CBS local sports news guy), and credited him for not spoiling results of tape-delayed broadcast games. When in fact, not only DID Wolf regularly spoil, he even held up cardboard signs with late scores at the end of the broadcast, to the consternation of all who thought themselves safe for having turned the sound off.

HeMateMe: I remember watching Warner Wolf maybe 20 years ago. I assume he's long retired. He's a local guy--why would you be familiar with the local news personalities in NYC? He had a following here, but I think top ratings went to nbc every single year, who had Marv Albert doing both the 5pm and 11:00 news here for many years, as well as announcing every possible game, from here to Madagascar. Give Marv some credit. Not many men would recover from having to explain red panties and sodomy in a Virginia court of law, and regain their place at the top of network newscasters.

When Marv left local news here he was replaced by Len Berman, who I think had worked as a high school intern for Albert, going way back. Berman gets some international exposure because he has always been part of the NBC team when they cover the Olympics.

I always liked Peter Vesey's columns. He might be a bit too opinionated for some, but his stuff is usually not dull. He worked out less well as a tv commentator. Just not a camera-viable friendly looking guy.

If you're familiar with Peter Vesey then surely you're familiar with Dick Young and his sports column "Young Ideas." His was a sort of Larry King type column, all over the place, a little bit racist in spots (I think he was one of the old guard that resented the new dominance of African Americans in sports). One supposed letter from a fan read: Q: "How can we stop dunking in the NBA?" [Young thought dunking should have been banned.]

Granny O Doul: After Young's death, the Village Voice ran a series of "Dick Young from Hell" columns titled "Terminally Young Ideas". Unfortunately I missed most of them because the Voice wasn't free then.

Jerry Girard on WPIX-11 was the local guy who actually did give viewers a chance to look away before seeing scores of to-be-aired-later games, in very marked contrast to Wolf.

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